1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to telecommunications services. More particularly, the present invention relates to capabilities that can enhance substantially the value and usefulness of various communication paradigms including, inter alia, Short Message Service (SMS), Multimedia Message Service (MMS), Internet Protocol (IP) Multimedia Subsystem (IMS), Wireless Application Protocol (WAP), Electronic Mail (E-Mail), Instant Messaging (IM), streaming (audio, video, etc.) data, etc.
2. Background of the Invention
As the ‘wireless revolution’ continues to march forward (through various flavors of 2G, 3G, 4G, and beyond) the importance to a Mobile Subscriber (MS)—for example a user of a Wireless Device (WD) such as a mobile telephone, a portable computing device, a BlackBerry, a computer, etc. that is serviced in some way by a Wireless Carrier (WC)—of their WD grows substantially.
One consequence of the growing importance of WDs is the resulting ubiquitous nature of WDs—i.e., MSs carry them at almost all times and use them for an ever-increasing range of activities.
(Note: While portions of the discussion below will, for simplicity of exposition, refer to messaging generally and certain types of messaging—including inter alia SMS, MMS, etc.—specifically, it will be readily apparent to one of ordinary skill in the relevant art that application of aspects of the present invention to numerous other communication paradigms (including inter alia a Voice Over IP (VoIP) data stream, software application (e.g., game, etc.) data, a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP)-addressed artifact, a video data stream (e.g., a movie, a video conference call, etc.), a voice telephone call, an audio data stream (e.g., a song, etc.), signaling and other command-and-control data, etc.) is easily possible and indeed is fully within the scope of the present invention.)
Over the past many years various factors (including the ubiquitous nature of WDs) have driven a steady annual increase, year over year, in among other things the number of SMS, MMS, etc. messages that have been exchanged by and between WDs. That steady increase shows no sign of abating. For example, as reported by the industry group CTIA (see ctia.org on the World Wide Web) in the U.S. there were over 2.1 trillion SMS messages sent during 2010 (up from—approximately 363 billion SMS messages sent during 2007, approximately 158 billion SMS messages sent during 2006, and approximately 81 billion SMS messages sent during 2005) and there were over 56.6 billion MMS messages sent during 2010 (up from—approximately 34.0 billion MMS messages sent during 2009 and approximately 2.7 billion MMS messages sent during 2006).
As the volume of SMS, MMS, etc. messaging has increased in the past, and at present continues to increase, it has become more and more important for all of the different entities that process messages—e.g., WCs, intermediaries, enterprises, Content Providers (CPs), Service Providers (SPs), etc.—to deliver messages in the most efficient, expeditious, flexible, etc. manner possible.
A message may contain among other things a destination address—i.e., the address to where the message should be delivered—e.g., for a Peer-to-Peer (P2P) SMS message perhaps the Telephone Number (TN) of the recipient MS' WD; for an Application-to-Peer (A2P) SMS message perhaps a Short Code (SC) that is associated with a particular service (such as for example an advertising campaign); etc.
The delivery of a message may involve a number of operations including possibly inter alia (1) one or more preparatory steps (e.g., the resolution of the message's destination address—i.e., the authoritative identification of the entity (e.g., WC, landline carrier, etc.) that, at the moment that the message is being routed, services or that is otherwise associated with the address; the identification of the current physical location of the recipient; obtaining an identifying value (such as for example an International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI) value); etc.) and (2) one or more conveyance steps (e.g., the actual delivery of possibly among other things the body or the content of the message, etc.).
Under certain circumstances various of the preparatory steps may become duplicative. For example, in the case where (1) MS1 sends an SMS message to MS2, (2) MS2 replies to MS1's message (resulting in an SMS message going from MS2 back to MS1), and (3) MS1 replies to MS2's reply message (resulting in an SMS message going from MS1 back to MS2) various of the preparatory steps associated with sending the second SMS message from MS1 to MS2 (including inter alia resolving a destination (MS2's) address, securing an IMSI value, etc.) may be duplicative and consequently may unnecessarily consume precious resources (including inter alia time, money, system resources, network resources, etc.).